"Gracious sakes alive, chile!" burst out Dinah, and without waiting to put
anything on her head she rushed forth into the garden. "Gib me dat shovel
quick! He'll be stuffocated fo' yo' know it."

She began to dig away at the pile of snow, and presently uncovered one of
Freddie's lower limbs. Then she dropped the shovel and tugged away at the
limb and presently brought Freddie to view, just as Mrs. Bobbsey and Nan
appeared on the scene.

"Never mind, Freddie dear," said his mother, taking him. "Be thankful that
you were not suffocated, as Dinah says."

"Yes, but Flossie and me were makin' an ev'rything house, with a parlor,
an' a bay window, an' ev'rything. I didn't want it to fall down." Freddie
was still gasping, but now he struggled to the ground. "Want to build it up
again," he added.

"Let me help them, mamma," put in Nan. "Bert is reading a book, so he won't
want me for a while."

"Very well, Nan, you may stay with them. But all of you be careful," said
Mrs. Bobbsey.

After that the building of the snow house was started all over again. The
pile of snow was packed down as hard as possible, and Nan made Flossie and
Freddie do the outside work while she crept inside, and cut around the
ceiling and the bay window just as the others wanted. It was great sport,
and when the snow house was finished it was large enough and strong enough
for all of them to enter with safety.

"Tonight I'll poah some water ober dat house," said Sam. "Dat will make de
snow as hard as ice." This was done, and the house remained in the garden
until spring came. Later on Bert built an addition to it, which he called
the library, and in this he put a bench and a shelf on which he placed some
old magazines and story papers. In the main part of the snow house Freddie
and Flossie at first placed an old rug and two blocks of wood for chairs,
and a small bench for a table. Then, when Flossie grew tired of the house,
Freddie turned it into a stable, in which he placed his rocking-horse. Then
he brought out his iron fire engine, and used the place for a fire-house,
tying an old dinner bell on a stick, stuck over the doorway. Dong! dong!
would go the bell, and out he would rush with his little engine and up the
garden path, looking for a fire.

"Let us play you are a reg'lar fireman," said Flossie, on seeing this. "You
must live in the fire-house, and I must be your wife and come to see you
with the baby." And she dressed up in a long skirt and paid him a visit,
with her best doll on her arm. Freddie pretended to be very glad to see
her, and embraced the baby. But a moment later he made the bell ring, and
throwing the baby to her rushed off again with his engine.

"That wasn't very nice," pouted Flossie. "Dorothy might have fallen in the
snow."

"Then I wouldn't be a fireman, not for a--a house full of gold!" said
Flossie, and marched back into the house with her doll.

Flossie's dolls were five in number. Dorothy was her pride, and had light
hair and blue eyes, and three dresses, one of real lace. The next was
Gertrude, a short doll with black eyes and hair and a traveling dress that
was very cute. Then came Lucy, who had lost one arm, and Polly, who had
lost both an arm and a leg. The fifth doll was Jujube, a colored boy,
dressed in a fiery suit of red, with a blue cap and real rubber boots. This
doll had come from Sam and Dinah and had been much admired at first, but
now taken out only when all the others went too.

"He doesn't really belong to the family, you know," Flossie would explain
to her friends. "But I have to keep him, for mamma says there is no colored
orphan asylum for dolls. Besides, I don't think Sam and Dinah would like to
see their doll child in an asylum." The dolls were all kept in a row in a
big bureau drawer at the top of the house, but Flossie always took pains to
separate Jujube from the rest by placing the cover of a pasteboard box
between them.

With so much snow on the ground it was decided by the boys of that
neighborhood to build a snow fort, and this work was undertaken early on
the following Saturday morning. Luckily, Bert was by that time well enough
to go out and he did his fair share of the labor, although being careful
not to injure the sore ankle.

The fort was built at the top of a small hill in a large open lot. It was
made about twenty feet square and the wall was as high as the boys' heads
and over a foot thick. In the middle was gathered a big pile of snow, and
into this was stuck a flag-pole from which floated a nice flag loaned by a
boy named Ralph Blake.

"Let us divide into two parties of soldiers," said Ralph. "One can defend
the fort and the others can attack it."

The boys were speedily divided into two parties, one to attack and one to
defend the fort. It fell to Bert's lot to be one of the attacking party.
Without loss of time each party began to make all the snowballs it could.
The boys who remained in the fort kept out of sight behind the walls, while
the attacking party moved to the back of the barn at the corner of the big
lot.